I'm another engineer, and for a few years now I've run a website with Greek recipes. Though I'm not using Michael's cool Tabular Recipe Notation (Patent Pending), I've also done my best to make my family's recipes executable (har har) by those with no cooking experience. They are authentic (not like the altered recipes used in Greek restaurants outside Greece), and delicious, esp. if you have the good fortune of having access to fresh, organic vegetables. I hope you enjoy them!

I had an awesome optopus dish at the Aegean in Lowell, Mass. It was not on the menu, a friend knew about it and ordered it. It was tender, and stewed with tomato and nutmeg. Don't know what it was called though, and haven't been able to reproduce it, even though I can get octopus at my fish market.
Any hints?

I'm another engineer, and for a few years now I've run a website with Greek recipes. Though I'm not using Michael's cool Tabular Recipe Notation (Patent Pending), I've also done my best to make my family's recipes executable (har har) by those with no cooking experience. They are authentic (not like the altered recipes used in Greek restaurants outside Greece), and delicious, esp. if you have the good fortune of having access to fresh, organic vegetables. I hope you enjoy them!

I am enjoying your site and browsing your recipes reminded me of an encounter I had with Greek food on the isle of Crete back in the late 70's.

I was in the Army and stationed in West Germany, back then the FRG, and was a missile systems officer. We had gone down to Crete to do a Hawk firing at a Greek base up on the mesa above the city of Hania. To those not familiar with Crete, Hania is one of the three major cities on the island and lies on the north shore on the western end. Near the base was a small village within walking distance where we could go for a meal at the only restaurant in the area. It was run by a man named Seafi (I am guessing that is how it is spelled as I had never seen it written, just spoken) and the cantina went by the same name. A group of us had gone there one evening for dinner. We sat down to eat and the other guys I was with ordered the regular--steak, french fries and beer. The meal cost, if memory serves, about a buck twenty-five. Even back then an equivalent steak dinner in the states cost five to eight dollars, so that was quite a deal. I was tired of steaks and wanting something ethnic when I noticed a Greek soldier sitting at a table across the room from us. He was hunched over what looked like a large flat soup bowl and hungrily devouring what I concluded had to be something really good given how he was eating it.

"I want what he's having," I told Seafi. He calmly looked over at the soldier, shrugged his shoulders and went back in the kitchen. A few moments later he came back to our table and plopped a bottle of Retsina in front of me. Again, for those of you unfamiliar with Greece, Retsina is a common wine-like beverage that I think tastes like turpentine. If you look it up on Wiki or About.com you will find that it is a "resinated" beverage that goes back to antiquity. Frankly, I think they should have kept it back there. That's when I noticed the bottle of Retsina sitting on the table in front of the soldier who was still greedily eating what I was attempting to try.

"Not the Retsina", I told Seafi, "what he is eating!" Seafi then asked, surprised, "Beans? You want beans?"

"Yes," I replied emphatically, I want beans!" He shrugged his shoulders again and gave me a "crazy American" look and went back in the kitchen. When he emerged again he had a large plate in his hand just like the one that the Greek soldier had been eating from. As he set it in front of me I saw that it was green beans and finely diced tomatoes. It was absolutely delicious and now I know that it is called: Fassolakia Ladera. When the bill came I realized why the Greek soldier had been eating it and why Seafi was so surprised that I wanted it--it was less than twenty-five cents!

Thank You so much for posting your recipes! I think I have died and gone to Greece! Very exciting stuff!!! I just wanted to eat the pages.

Here is my only Greek recipe, I got from the Reno Gazette Journal in 1991. It's quite good and everyone I have served it to has said so. I will try your Pitas as soon as I can. Thank You so much again!!!

Place patties on rack in broiler pan so surface of meat is 3 to 4 inches from heat. Broil 8 to 10 minutes or until no longer pink, turning once. Carve each patty into thin slices. Place equal amounts of lamb, tomato and onion in each pita half; serve with Cucumber Yogurt sauce. Makes 4 servings.